Robert Di Silva looked at her with exaggerated surprise. “You mean you came in to make a deal? You amaze me. I would have thought that someone with your great legal talent would be able to get him off scot-free.”
“Mr. Di Silva, I know this looks like an open-and-shut case,” Jennifer began, “but there are extenuating circumstances. Abraham Wilson was—”
District Attorney Di Silva interrupted. “Let me put it in legal language you can understand, counselor. You can take your extenuating circumstances and shove them up your ass!” He got to his feet and when he spoke his voice was trembling with rage. “Make a deal with you, lady? You fucked up my life! There’s a dead body and your boy’s going to burn for it. Do you hear me? I’m making it my personal business to see that he’s sent to the chair.”
“I came up here to withdraw from the case. You could reduce this to a manslaughter charge. Wilson’s already in for life. You could—”
“No way! He’s guilty of murder plain and simple!”
Jennifer tried to control her anger. “I thought the jury was supposed to decide that.”
Robert Di Silva smiled at her without mirth. “You don’t know how heartwarming it is to have an expert like you walk into my office and explain the law to me.”
“Can’t we forget our personal problems? I—”
“Not as long as I live. Say hello to your pal Michael Moretti for me.”
Half an hour later, Jennifer was having coffee with Ken Bailey.
“I don’t know what to do,” Jennifer confessed. “I thought if I got off the case Abraham Wilson would stand a better chance. But Di Silva won’t make a deal. He’s not after Wilson—he’s after me.”
Ken Bailey looked at her thoughtfully. “Maybe he’s trying to psych you out. He wants you running scared.”
“I am running scared.” She took a sip of her coffee. It tasted bitter. “It’s a bad case. You should see Abraham Wilson. All the jury will have to do is look at him and they’ll vote to convict.”
“When does the trial come up?”
“In four weeks.”
“Anything I can do to help?”
“Uh-huh. Put out a contract on Di Silva.”
“Do you think there’s any chance you can get Wilson an acquittal?”
“Looking at it from the pessimist’s point of view, I’m trying my first case against the smartest District Attorney in the country, who has a vendetta against me, and my client is a convicted Black killer who killed again in front of a hundred and twenty witnesses.”
“Terrific. What’s the optimist’s point of view?”
“I could get hit by a truck this afternoon.”
The trial date was only three weeks away now. Jennifer arranged for Abraham Wilson to be transferred to the prison at Riker’s Island. He was put in the House of Detention for Men, the largest and oldest jail on the island. Ninety-five percent of his prison mates were there awaiting trial for felonies: murder, arson, rape, armed robbery and sodomy.
No private cars were allowed on the island, and Jennifer was transported in a small green bus to the gray brick control building where she showed her identification. There were two armed guards in a green booth to the left of the building, and beyond that a gate where all unauthorized visitors were stopped. From the control building, Jennifer was driven down Hazen Street, the little road that went through the prison grounds, to the Anna M. Kross Center Building, where Abraham Wilson was brought to see her in the counsel room, with its eight cubicles reserved for attorney-client meetings.
Walking down the long corridor on her way to meet with Abraham Wilson, Jennifer thought: This must be like the waiting room to hell. There was an incredible cacophony. The prison was made of brick and steel and stone and tile. Steel gates were constantly opening and clanging shut. There were more than one hundred men in each cellblock, talking and yelling at the same time, with two television sets tuned to different channels and a music system playing country rock. Three hundred guards were assigned to the building, and their bellowing could be heard over the prison symphony.
A guard had told Jennifer, “Prison society is the politest society in the world. If a prisoner ever brushes up against another one, he immediately says, ‘Excuse me.’ Prisoners have a lot on their minds and the least little thing…”
Jennifer sat across from Abraham Wilson and she thought: This man’s life is in my hands. If he dies, it will